Reanimation

14: On Saying Goodbye

AUTHOR'S WARNING: I am REALLY SORRY. This update is not a continuation of the main storyline at all. I wrote the continuation three times and I wasn't happy with any of them at all. I deleted all of them and I'll rewrite the continuation next week, hopefully I will be satisfied so the story can move forward. I badly want the story to move as much as you do, but my horrible writer's block is seriously getting in the way.

For the mean time here's a chapter you can skip entirely if you want to. It's a flashback. Several people have asked me to write the funeral and I didn't really think it was a good idea at first. But after a major disappointment (the failure in writing a decent Chapter 14, that is), this idea continued to bug me and I thought I'd just get it over with.

If you don't like flashbacks, it's safe to skip this entirely. It's written for the people who asked for it. xD

-------------------------------------

Let's
pick up
where we left
off: bonds
like friendship
and meaning
started to unravel
beneath the weighted imitation
of life. Can we go
back
to the beginning?
When we were younger
and in some ways wiser
our hearts invincible
able to fill
despite knowing
one day
we will forget
to say
goodbye.

xxx

There was something incredibly peaceful and comforting in the air, in spite of what she'd prepared herself for.

"Must be all the orange and the yellow they had brought in here," she noted, scanning everything around them.

"They even found the perfect hue," she commented silently to herself, ignoring the tight knot forming in her stomach.

Sakura's head shot up to see Sasuke step into the crowd, which had begun filing silently into the seats. He was keeping his distance from the people as he observed them, his face void of any expression. Wearing his usual black coat, his form stood out from the flood of bright colors. Somehow this felt very symbolic to Sakura, she just didn't know exactly how.

"I will never be able to convince myself that orange used to be such an eyesore to me."

Sakura turned to see Iruka standing beside her.

The sadness Sakura had been trying to ignore at the pit of her gut threatened to burst at the sight of the people close to them, close to him. Sakura tried her best to fight the tears from falling.

She saw Iruka smile. "I will never know why he picked orange as a child. It could be just his favorite, like I've always assumed. But clearly, the color stood out, almost as if trying to catch attention."

Sakura let out a sigh. Don't, please, sensei, she pleaded in her mind as her eyes began to sting.

"Little did young Naruto know, time will come when this same color will symbolize something entirely different and hopeful, something his entire village will love."

A tear or two might have escaped, Sakura tried her best to ignore her own emotions. She wasn't sure how long she'd been biting at her lip, but now it hurt so badly.